Ceremony to Reception Distance--Thoughts?

Ideally I would like my ceremony to take place in a church, however the churches where I would (again, ideally) like to have the ceremony are pretty far from all of my preferred reception spaces (we're talking 27-32 minutes according to Google, and that's without any accidents, etc.).

We are definitely going to do some sort of shuttle transportation, but how far is too far between ceremony and reception venue?

That being said, if anyone also has suggestions on churches in the Western suburbs (at the very least, west of highway 100) that are friendly to non-members renting for ceremonies, that would be so helpful.

I would say that it depends on how many guests are familiar with the area, or at least have GPS/ a smartphone. We have most of our guests (like >75%) coming from out of town and couldn't justify making them drive more than just a few miles.

Are you looking for a certain denominations church? If your catholic try st. Mary of the lake in Plymouth. The priest is goofy, but good. He is one of the only churches that would allow our marriage with us having a child out of wedlock and living together

I don't think it's a huge deal. We are having people drive from Edina to just west of Plymouth (Medina). But, they have 2 hours between the ceremony and reception to get there, and both of our hotels are near the reception venue, so they can check in at that time and either walk over or take the shuttle.

As someone who lives in the suburbs, I've grown pretty used to 20-25 minute drives like it's nothing. I don't think it's too far. If google is saying 27-32 minutes, you can assume that it will take roughly 5 minutes less which puts it at only 22-27 minutes. Not too bad. But, as someone else stated, if you have a lot of people coming from out of town who aren't familiar with the area, it'd be nice to keep things closer to a 5-10 minute drive.

To me, a 30 minute drive is a long way. I live in downtown Minneapolis and it takes about that long to get from here to Eagan, which is not close at all. If you're in a rural area and there is nothing else around, maybe that would be the only option, but in the Twin Cities I personally would try to find something closer.

I also had questions about the shuttle transportation, would it be from a guest hotel to the venues and back, or just between the ceremony and reception? If it was just between the ceremony and reception, would it be helpful to people who live locally? I would guess most people would need to drive to the ceremony, and would want to go home directly from the reception rather than having to take a shuttle back to the church.

The other question about a shuttle is whether it could fit all of the guests in one trip or people would have to wait for the shuttle to make return trips. If it was a 30 minute drive to the reception, would they have to wait an hour for it to come do another trip? And if there is one shuttle that fits everybody, what would the logistics like to make sure you had everybody who needs a ride before leaving?

Rule of thumb is that you should stay within 15-20 minutes from your ceremony location - especially since out of town guests may already be a bit tired of travelling as it is. Regardless, it is your special day, so you choose the venue that suits you best. All others will follow in line.

pp = you already had a post reported as spam/advertising. Your siggy is more of the same. Advertising isn't allowed on the knot and you're clearly a vendor. Apparently you don't understand this concept.

My ceremony is in Robbinsdale, just off hiway 100 and my reception is at Gale Woods Farm, close to 30 min distance. Trying to find a church was so challenging but when surveying friend and family in the area they assured me 20-30 min wasn't much. I'm providing direction cards at the church that give specific directions to the reception site and there's an hour and a half in between. Should be ok